Home Invasion Turns Anti-Gun Couple Into Gun Owners

After a violent home invasion and sexual assault violated their sense of security and dignity, formerly gun-adverse New Jersey couple James Dittrich and Meredith Duffy are now proud gun owners.

Before the assault, Dittrich and Duffy were strongly anti gun.

 “I didn’t want a gun. I specifically didn’t want one,” Dittrich told ABC News. “I was very much opposed to hav[ing] one.”

That all changed after two assailants, who were most likely high on methamphetamine, forced Dittrich at gunpoint to let them into his apartment. Once inside, one assailant began to beat him to a pulp while the other sexually assaulted Duffy in the adjacent room. Fortunately Dittrich was able to grab the assailants’ weapon for long enough to allow Duffy to call 911. The attackers fled the apartment before the police arrived.

“I guess I got the realization that the police really can’t protect you,” Dittrich said. “They can respond, and they can protect you once the get there. But [until then], you are on your own."

When ABC News asked if owning a gun makes her feel safer, Duffy responded firmly: “Oh, one hundred percent.”

Duffy is one of many women who are making decision to buy a gun. With one in five women the victims of sexual assault and violent crime on the rise after a two-decade decline, more and more women are arming themselves.